Ferrari’s protest over the restart of Saturday’s Six Hours of Spa was thrown out on a technicality.
The staff’s vehicles have been working first and second when the race was red-flagged as a result of an enormous crash which launched Earl Bamber’s Cadillac right into a barrier at Kemmel. He and WRT BMW’s Sean Gelael emerged from the crash unscathed however the clean-up and restore operation took round one and three-quarter hours, pushing the race near its Six Hour period.
Nonetheless race management took the choice to restart the race for almost all of the remaining race time. It due to this fact ended virtually eight hours after it began.
By then Ferrari’s vehicles had slipped to 3rd and fourth, and victory went to the Jota Porsche of Callum Ilott and Will Stevens. “We contemplate the choice to increase the race past six hours questionable,” mentioned Ferrari’s head of endurance race vehicles Ferdinando Cannizzo. “We really feel lots of remorse as a result of we imagine the end result ought to have been completely different.”
Ferrari lodged a protest towards the stewards’ resolution to renew the race “for a interval of 1 hour and 44 minutes.” The stewards cited article 14.3.1 of the sporting rules for this resolution, which states they “could take the choice to cease and/or modify the race time set,” which “could not exceed the time of the competitors.”
Did Ferrari have a degree? The race winners’ time – 5hr 57’31.542 – didn’t exceed the higher restrict specified for this occasion.
Nonetheless they believed the time spent beneath the pink flags ought to have been included within the total race time, as is commonplace in F1.
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“At 6.55 pm, the restart was introduced,” the staff famous. “Nonetheless, this included the restoration of the one hour and 44 minutes of suspension reasonably than simply the 5 minutes remaining till the pure finish of the occasion.
“On the restart, Ferrari quantity 51 first needed to make an emergency cease, adopted by a ultimate pit cease, like its ‘sister’ automotive quantity 50. Within the finale, regardless of the Italian drivers’ glorious lap occasions, they may not overtake Porsches quantity 12 and 6, which completed first and second, respectively. These Porsches had made their fourth pit cease earlier than the suspension.”
WEC’s guidelines on race durations work otherwise to these seen in different collection like F1. Whereas the utmost time restrict is similar for each grand prix, WEC occasions can have completely different durations.
F1 additionally units a restrict for a way far a race could be prolonged after a stoppage. That is why, for instance, the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix was stopped after simply 28 laps of 53 – not as a result of circumstances worsened, however due to F1’s three-hour time restrict on racing.
However Ferrari’s protest was finally rejected not over the problem of whether or not the race ought to have been restarted for the complete remaining period, however on a extra technical matter. The stewards famous: “A stewards’ resolution cannot be the topic of a protest beneath article 13.2.1 of FIA Worldwide Sporting Code.”
This clause lists what groups could deliver protests towards. It consists of the provisional classification, which Ferrari additionally protested, however not stewards’ choices.
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Even had this not been the case, an additional clause was accessible to the WEC stewards to justify their resolution to make sure the race ran its full supposed period. Article 1.2.2 of the sporting rules states: “No competitor, driver or participant could demand the literal software of those rules if its behaviour is deemed opposite to good sportsmanship and truthful competitors.”
It’s simple to know Ferrari’s displeasure at shedding a one-two-result which they appeared to have secured for 2 hours. However guaranteeing the race reached its supposed period of six hours was arguably the most suitable choice accessible to make sure a “truthful competitors.”
Nonetheless as with all such choices it should deliver with it the expectation that it’s going to set a future for a way future choices are dealt with.
